phpWordPress 3.0 released: the October 2005 announcement

The forum post of 19 October 2005 reads as a press release. Spoonlabs said it was pleased to announce version 3.0 of phpWordPress Article Manager. After “almost a year in development”, it was launching what it called the most versatile and user-friendly article manager for the PHP platform. Those are marketing claims, and we report them as the company’s own description.

phpWordPress was a commercial PHP article manager, renamed Vivvo in July 2006 and unrelated to the open-source WordPress project. The release history lists the versions around it.

What was announced with 3.0?

The post offers 20 percent off the new 3.0 Enterprise licence. It adds a further 10 percent for customers who wrote to the company, in fewer than 50 words, saying how they expected 3.0 to help with content management and news publishing. It does not list features. For those we turn to later records.

What did 3.0 mean for publishers?

A major release is a decision point for anyone running the previous line. The thread gives three points of evidence about how that played out.

• Migration advice. On 14 December 2005 staff told 2.6 users that all 2.6.0 updates were contained in 3.0, that no separate 2.6 patch existed, and that migrating was strongly recommended, mainly for security reasons.
• A security patch. On 1 December 2005 a critical vulnerability allowing SQL injection through the poll, category and ctg parameters was announced, with a downloadable patch. On 30 December staff confirmed that copies sold after 1 December already included it.
• A quick follow-up. Version 3.0.1 on 8 December 2005 added AJAX headline rotation and auto-complete search, described in more detail in the AJAX announcement.

That sequence is typical. A new major version ships, flaws are found within weeks, and the vendor patches and follows with a point release. A publisher who upgraded in the first week would have needed to apply the patch as well.

How should a publisher judge a major release today?

Treat the launch announcement as the vendor’s view and look for the change log. In 2005, the useful records were in the forum and the changelog page, not the headline post. The same holds now. Before you upgrade, look for:

1. A list of changes, including removed features.
2. A statement of how long the old version will get security fixes.
3. A tested upgrade path, and whether it skips versions. (The 3.2 upgrade pack, for example, covered only 3.1 to 3.2.)
4. A way to roll back if the upgrade fails.

Launch discounts like the one in this post still exist as introductory pricing. They do not change what you will pay in year two, so compare the renewal terms, which the guides explain how to find.

Where does 3.0 sit in the product’s history?

It is the midpoint. Version 2.52 came in December 2004, 3.0 in October 2005, 3.2 in May 2006 and the rename to Vivvo two months after that. The News board shows the surrounding announcements, and the 3.2 release is the next major step.